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Douglas Costa attends Neymar birthday party after Juventus star ‘crashes car’ in Italy
JUVENTUS star Douglas Costa reportedly crashed his car in Italy on Monday - but that didn’t stop him attending Neymar’s birthday party in Paris.
Brazilian Costa joined Juventus in the summer of 2018 after three years at Bayern Munich.
The winger is a team-mate of Neymar’s at international level and was invited to the PSG star’s birthday bash on Monday.
Neymar hosted a ‘Nuit Rouge’ in Paris where he appeared being supported by red crutches, following his metatarsal injury.
And Costa was spotted at the do - having apparently only hours before avoided injury in a car crash.
According to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, Costa crashed his car on the A4 road that runs from Turin to Trieste.
He is said to have crashed his Jeep near the town of Santhia, midway between Turin and Milan.
But the player nevertheless flew to Paris to celebrate with Neymar in the Gabriel Pavilion on the Champs-Elysées.
Among the attendees at the bash were PSG players Gianluigi Buffon, Marco Verratti and Kylian Mbappe.
Dani Alves, who quit Juve for PSG in 2017, was also there.
Neymar has been ruled out for 10 weeks with a metatarsal injury suffered last month.
The set-back is a bitter blow to PSG’s dreams of winning a first-ever Champions League.
The French club face Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United in the last-16 stage of the competition.
Neymar gave a speech at his party, saying: "What I wanted the most as a birthday present today is a new metatarsal so I could be on the field fighting and doing what I love the most, which is playing soccer.”
He is said to he originally cancelled his birthday celebrations because of the broken foot, only to be persuaded to continue with the plans.
"They are giving me all the strength possible to help me return as soon as possible,” he said when discussing his team-mates.